Cornelis Engebrechtsz. - THE CRUCIFIXION WITH THE VIRGIN MARY, SAINTS MARY MAGDALENE, JOHN THE BAPTIST, PETER, AND AN UNIDENTIFIED MALE SAINT

 

Cornelis Engebrechtsz.
LEIDEN 1460/65 - 1527
THE CRUCIFIXION WITH THE VIRGIN MARY, SAINTS MARY MAGDALENE, JOHN THE BAPTIST, PETER, AND AN UNIDENTIFIED MALE SAINT
oil on oak panel
61 by 53 cm.; 24 by 20 3/4  in.


Though influenced to some extent by the Antwerp Mannerists, Cornelis Engebrechtsz. was active in Leiden in the North Netherlands.  The cornerstones of his oeuvre are two triptychs painted for the Augustinian convent of Mariënpoel in Oegstgeest, just outside Leiden, a Lamentation of circa 1508 and a Crucifixion of circa 1517-22.  The ten plus years between these two key works provide the rough outline for a chronology of his other works, including this one.

Walter Gibson published this work as a School piece on the basis of 'bad illustrations', but from better photographs including details, he revised this opinion which he considered in retrospect to be too harsh, concluding that it is "a work from Engebrechtsz's own hand, with some workshop intervention, such as in the head of the Magdalene, unless that has suffered from overpainting" (letter, 10th April 1997).

Following an inspection at first-hand in April 1998, both Professor Gibson and Dr. Jan Piet Filedt Kok concluded that it is an authentic work, possibly painted between 1510 and 1520.  They plan to include it as such in their forthcoming catalogue raisonné entitled Cornelis Engebrechtsz. - A Sixteenth Century Leiden Artist and his Workshop to be published by Brepols.

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